Atlanta Falcons head coach Kevin Stefanski is ready to embrace an NFC South rivalry with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, but not a personal feud with Baker Mayfield. Despite his former Cleveland Browns quarterback's recent comments, Stefanski avoided expanding the drama with a run-of-the-mill retort.
Mayfield stirred the pot just a few days after the Falcons hired Stefanski, claiming his former head coach “shipped” him out of Cleveland “like a piece of garbage.” Stefanski had no response to that statement, but the coach did reply to Mayfield ending his tweet by saying he “can't wait to see” his new rival twice a year.
“I love rivalries in sports, and obviously, Buccaneers-Falcons have a great rivalry,” Stefanski said, via ESPN. “It's something that I'm excited about, but I would not get into the specifics of those types of things other than to say I have a ton of respect for Baker as a player, as a person. That's a great team with a great player.”
Stefanski was the Browns' head coach from 2020 to 2025 and oversaw the end of Mayfield's tenure in Cleveland. The two worked together in 2020 and 2021 before the Browns traded Mayfield to the Carolina Panthers in the 2022 offseason.
Mayfield, however, was the one who requested the trade after the Browns acquired DeShaun Watson from the Houston Texans. He believed a mutual split was in his and Stefanski's best interests, which proved true, at least on his end.
Mayfield did not pan out in Carolina, but he has since flourished with the Buccaneers. Stefanski went on to coach the Browns for four more seasons without Mayfield before getting fired at the end of the 2025 season. He subsequently signed with the Falcons in mid-January.
With the 2026 NFL season schedule still up in the air, the Buccaneers and Falcons have met within the first five weeks in four of the last six years.
